Thursday, October 25, 2007

DAVID BYRNE Live from Austin Tx

New West Records NW8045 (2007)

Recorded in 2001 for PBS's popular Austin City Limits, Live from Austin Tx showcases former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's versatility and live chops with a mixture of solo material and songs from his days with the Heads. He is backed by a trio of crack musicians on bass, drums, and percussion (how fitting that the third member of Byrne's backing band would not be a keyboardist or second guitarist but a percussionist, underscoring the importance of rhythm to his music) and the string ensemble Tosca. Byrne's new songs may not have the immediacy or shock of his earlier material (including a stunningly vital "Once in a Lifetime") but they do tend to lodge in the head easily (especially the tuneful "Marching Through the Wilderness"). Byrne's guitar playing is tight and rhythmic and his singing has gotten better with age, as on the show-closing cover of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" (which he introduces as "a song my mother used to sing to me"). (Also available on CD)